Red Rose

Red Rose: Another Killer APP, is a well worn trope but Red Rose takes a fresh approach, always surprising in its twists and turns. I was really impressed at the way the plot developed. Some good scenes of horror but it's mostly psychological. A group of teen friends in a grim northern UK town, Bolton, finish school and await their exam results. It's really grim and I don't just mean the Horror APP, which is effective. It's the grinding poverty and hard lives of some of the characters. It's as if Ken Loach is directing/writing it. There are the usual teen traumas, some bullying, heartbreak over romances, family problems, but this feeds into the narrative rather than providing a sideshow, We;ve already seen a girl die due to the APP Red Rose, and now it turns up on the phone of one of the teens. Strange events follow, there is apparent communication with dead people, phones send disturbing/troublemaking messages seemingly at will. Red Rose knows what everyone is doing, where they are. The death toll mounts as the series veers between Fantasy and Science Fiction (but always Horror) as the APP manipulates more people. Great acting from an ensemble cast. Created and written by Michael and Paul Clarkson. Eight episodes on Netflix. 8/10.

It started so good, the first 3-4 episodes with Rochelle were great, then it was becoming just an average teenage drama, lazier and lazier writing and not believable. New, shallow characters appeared, too many unbelievable coincidences, like Roch's father having a picnic on his own in the same spot as the teenagers and by coincident he also has Roch's letter about her results in his hands. What is the chance of that happening? Teenagers dying and no one is willing to turn their phone or WiFi off. The last episode is probably the worst. I was expecting a much more twisted ending. The series had a potential but it feels like a different person wrote the beginning and end episodes.

After she downloads an app called Red Rose, life spirals out of control for teenage girl Rochelle, who's phone seems to have a life of its own, others download it, and have to discover who's behind it to stay alive.

It's an enjoyable, fast moving psychedelic horror series, I was impressed by the tone of it, the acting and the pacing. It really does get darker and more twisted as it develops, the final trio of episodes were the best patch for me.

What was interesting, was the anonymity of the villains, nameless, faceless, and lacking any degree of morality.

Initially I just saw it as The BBC doing a Netflix type series, similar to Eden or Scream, but it has its own identity, it's twisted and macabre at times, it had me gripped.

Well written, well crafted, I liked the mix of horror, humour drama and action, it surprised me how good it actually was, so much so that I binge watched it in a day.

7/10.

Really loved this.

Can't beat a British, gritty drama. And even better when it's like real life. Real houses, real attitudes, real areas us Brits live in.

The actors were all great. Never heard of most of them, but they seemed pros. I bet they are!

Storylines were good, realistic between the characters.

Main story of the phone app, good idea. It's not like it couldn't happen either. Not out of the world thriller.

And the soundtrack, so brilliant.

This definitely has me on the edge a lot. Felt sorry for the kids so much. I'm glad this was a series, they had so much to say and explain. This didn't feel like it was longed out.

Enjoyable.

My husband and I enjoyed this. There was a fairly interesting premise and some good characters however like with a lot of series nowadays are stretched into too many episodes. The 8 could have been condensed to 5 or 6 and then it would have been greatly improved. The episode which seems to just be about getting their exam results was not great.

The first two and last two were decent. The others dragged a bit.

We did feel that the acting was good and they did feel like genuine teenagers and it felt authentic that they were from Bolton and wasn't just like every other teen drama that seems to be based in london.

The characters also had a great bond and each one was distinct and interesting.

An ok way to pass the time, not life changing but also doesn't deserve the incredibly harsh reviews. Could 2 hours have been cut out of it though? Yes absolutely.